CICF: Our new mission and direction

By Brian Payne, president and CEO, Central Indiana Community Foundation

Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) and its affiliates, The Indianapolis Foundation, serving Marion County, and Legacy Fund, serving Hamilton County, along with its various donor-advised and special interest funds, are working together to make Central Indiana a more equitable community.

For over 100 years, we've done this by:

• awarding grants to effective not-for-profit organizations
• helping donors achieve their personal philanthropic goals
• convening community partners to make Central Indiana a better place to live, work and play - our community leadership really sets us apart from other organizations or foundations

We will continue to do those three things, but we have been following a growing body of research, including research from Brookings Institute and The Equality of Opportunity Project, that tells us there is an increasing gap between the affluent and poor in Central Indiana, that the chances of making it out of poverty are slim, and that a person's race has a profound impact on whether he or she has access to opportunity. Read more.